Yankees clinch playoff spot after Julio Rodríguez’s baserunning disaster

Julio Rodríguez’s survival instincts cost the Seattle Mariners big time on Wednesday.

With Seattle down 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th against the New York Yankees, Rodríguez began the frame on second base and soon moved 90 feet from tying the game on a Cal Raleigh single. At that point, the Mariners had no outs and the middle of the order up.

First was Randy Arozarena, who reached a 2-2 count against Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton. And then it all went off the rails for the Mariners.

Arozarena swung and missed at a Hamilton slider for strike three, losing his bat in the process. That bat hurtled down the third-base line, causing Rodríguez to jump out of the way, then run away from the basepath. Rodríguez might have been decompressing after a big scare, but unfortunately, the ball was still live.

A quick throw to third and Rodríguez was out.

Going off Fangraphs’ win probability, that single play took the Mariners from a 64.8% chance to win to 8.9%, a 55.9% swing. Justin Turner struck out swinging on the next at-bat to end the game, a 2-1 Yankees win.

The victory made the Yankees the second team in MLB to clinch a playoff spot, joining the Milwaukee Brewers, who also punched their ticket Wednesday. It was the continuation of a career-worst season for Rodríguez as well.

All of that would be bad for any team, but it is particularly brutal for the Mariners given this was their second straight game with a baserunning catastrophe. Victor Robles committed perhaps the most perplexing mistake on the basepaths all season on Tuesday, when he attempted to steal home on a 3-0 count, with the bases loaded and two outs in the first inning.

He was caught, ending a threat in which the Mariners were a ball away from an easy run. To add injury to insult, Robles hurt his hand on the play and was held out of the lineup Wednesday.

Both mistakes went far beyond your usual TOOTBLAN (thrown out on the basepaths like a nincompoop), but that brand of baseball has kind of been the 77-75 Mariners’ trademark this season, in which they are fighting for a playoff spot despite boasting one of the best rotations in baseball and having bought at the trade deadline.